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Brain op baby had only weeks to live, say surgeons
Rashid Razaq29 Dec 2008
LONDON surgeons have spoken of the groundbreaking treatment to remove a tumour from the world's youngest brain surgery patient.
Madison Quartarone was only two weeks old when she was operated on at Great Ormond Street Hospital after a large, benign tumour was discovered in her brain days after her birth.
A team of paediatric surgeons performed three high-risk embilisation procedures in which the tumour is reduced by injecting arteries with a glue-like substance to cut off the blood supply.
Madison, now eight weeks old, is believed to be the youngest person to undergo the complex surgery, but doctors are hopeful she will make a full recovery.
Neurosurgeon Dominic Thompson said Madison would have died within weeks without the operation. "I am not aware of anyone as young as Madison having this treatment and if successful it could be groundbreaking," he said. "To be born with such a large tumour is very unusual as only a small percentage of tumours present themselves in the first month of life.
"The surgery carries the risk of cutting off a blood vessel which supplies the brain or causing the baby to have a stroke. Madison is not out of the woods yet but she does look remarkably well."
The surgery caused the tumour to shrink sufficiently to allow Madison's mother, Charlene Smith, to take her home to Bedford in time for Christmas. Ms Smith, 20, a restaurant worker, said: "We are so pleased she's home but we are very tired. She's stable at the moment and feeding well."
Madison was born to Ms Smith and her partner, factory worker Nick Quartarone, 25, on 1 November.
The baby's grandfather, Ian Chandler, said: "Madison has amazed everybody. She underwent seven operations in the first seven weeks of her life but now she is putting weight on and suffering all the problems that other babies have, like trapped wind and colic."
